RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Obama goes to Osawatomie, Kansas to ‘channel’…

…quick: which legendary figure from American history is Obama planning to ‘channel’ there?

If you said “John Brown”… HAHAHA! You’re funny. No, the odds of a Democratic politician going to honor a hardcore abolitionist militant who helped start a war that ended up penalizing the Democratic party on the national level for seventy years are, well, nil. The Democratic Establishment does not so hold grudges as they clutch them in their hands until the heat and pressure deforms the grudges into a non-recognizable form; put another way… John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in its grave, and that’s just fine with them.

Nah, President Obama’s going to Osawatomie to channel Teddy Roosevelt. Lots of liberals like Teddy Roosevelt, and think that he’s a great Republican, for three reasons. First, Teddy Roosevelt was a Progressive*; second, Teddy Roosevelt went third-party in 1912 and assured a Democrat’s election; and third, Teddy Roosevelt is dead. I’m not even really certain that Obama is really aware of the historical importance of the town, or why Teddy Roosevelt picked it in the first place. On the other hand, I’m reasonably certain that Obama knows that Roosevelt’s speech there in 1910 can be seen as being one step on Teddy’s journey to the aforementioned third-party run in 1912… and that’s really what it’s all about for this administration, yes?

Quick exit question: if Barack Obama is going to Osawatomie to evoke Teddy Roosevelt’s New Nationalism speech**, does that include this passage?

No man is worth his salt in public life who makes on the stump a pledge which he does not keep after election; and, if he makes such a pledge and does not keep it, hunt him out of public life.

*I would like to note for the record that Teddy Roosevelt did not have the benefit that we have ‘enjoyed’ (if that’s the right word) of having a century of dealing with the fallout from various Progressive policies. I would also like to point out that our party’s Progressive President was still infinitely better than that racist, fascist son-of-a-gun Woodrow [Expletive Deleted] Wilson.

**Which I have read; and I suspect that this puts me one up on any number of people in the Obama administration. Including, possibly, the President himself.